With Commissioner Brian Pate strongly disagreeing, the Wake Forest commissioners voted three to one to approve the Greenway Village apartment project on South Franklin Street. In a different vote, they unanimously agreed to start the rehearing process for the large Averette-Tryon subdivision at the planning board level with a hearing possible in February.
Greenway Village was approved with new wording in one of seven conditions, language saying the developer, Site Collaborative Inc., will not start building the second phase of 96 apartments in two buildings that are partly in the 500-year floodplain until the applicant can demonstrate it is in compliance with the UDO, the Unified Development Ordinance.
“I have very big concerns on this project,” Pate said. “My big concern is that as we prepare for more cars, more houses and more residents we get more cars, more houses and more residents.” He went on to say a concern is that if the extension of South Franklin Street to the bypass is not completed by the time the first 108 apartments are built, there is only one way for all the residents in Holding Village, the residents in the 98 Forestville Road townhouses that are under construction and a section of Heritage to leave their homes. That is on Franklin Street onto Rogers Road.
Pate also recalled when he bought his first house in Raleigh, the realtor refused to close the sale until Pate bought flood insurance. That was in the spring of 1996; in the fall came Hurricane Fran and flooding.
“I just have real concerns about the invasion into the floodplain. There are challenges with this project.”
Commissioner Bridget Wall-Lennon said the rezoning will provide more benefits than leaving the property split between commercial and mixed-use housing. “My point is they can go back [if the commissioners do not approve the rezoning to all mixed-use housing] and knock off a few buildings with just a building permit.” By having the rezoning and master plan, she said, there are improvements to South Franklin Street and other benefits.
The vote was three to one with Pate voting no.
Pate also voiced disapproval of the Averette-Tryon subdivision plan, citing the two two-lane roads serving the project, Oak Grove Church Road and Averette Road. (N.C. 98 is also two lanes where it intersects with Averette.) “We know from experience that DOT is on again, off again in widening. There are red flags all over this development. There’s no plan for a fire station. If there’s a crash on either one of those roads, people start looking for a bypass.
“I get it that people need the housing. I just think it’s too much on one spot,” Pate said. Noting that he will not be in office when the rehearing occurs, Pate said, “I will be vocal when it comes back up. I’m just terrified that we’re going to be so behind that we can’t catch up. We’ve done a good job in keeping taxes low. There’s just so much that’s needed [for this project] for the roads and infrastructure. Five years later we probably will have the infrastructure.”
Commissioner Liz Simpers said she wanted an independent environmental impact study of the subdivision. “That’s important to me.”
Pate said the town does not have the authority to have some party undertake that study. “Remanding it back to the planning board is the thing we can do tonight.”
Earlier the town board had held a public hearing as advertised on the agenda, and there were speakers.
Jennifer Currin, the development services manager, said the developer, Tryon Investment Partners LLC, and its engineer, Priest Craven & Associates, would have the new plans ready for the planning department to review in December. Some of the changes they will make are to improve Averette Road, lessening the speed limit on the road and new turning lanes.
Frank “Spank” McCoy, whose land abuts the proposed subdivision, reiterated his objections from the first public hearing and asked for a six-month continuance.
“We need to preserve our surface waters,” McCoy said. “Preserving the water quality in all the Neuse Basin streams and buffers is critically important.”
Tommy Craven with the engineering firm rebutted some of McCoy’s statements.
The commissioners did get hung up over a decision whether to approve an extension or a rescission of the conditional zoning for a 1.35-acre vacant lot in the southwest corner of South Main Street and Forbes Road. In 1997 the town board approved a conditional use rezoning to only allow a plumbing contractor’s office that was never built. In May 2015 the owner then and now, Anderson Marlow, asked to have the permitted uses expanded to most but not all the uses allowed in neighborhood business, but nothing was built.
However, and this may have triggered the extension-rescission question, there was a technical review committee meeting on Oct. 31 in which the members reviewed a master plan by the Nau Company to build a 21,200-square-foot, two-story building on what was then described as 1.48 acres with the same identification number. There is a shared driveway which may explain the discrepancy in the area size.
Pate objected to a business use, saying that area of South Main Street is “one of the most congested areas in Wake Forest.” He is concerned that some houses are being converted to commercial use.
The four commissioners present – Commissioner Anne Reeve was absent to be with her critically ill sister – split two to two on a motion to deny so Mayor Vivian Jones voted no; when the motion was to approve a one-year extension the split was the same with Simpers and Wall-Lennon voting yes and Jones agreeing with them.
The board also approved the rezoning of 9.16 acres on Cliff Lane, the Marshall Village, to conditional use highway business. The owner has approved prohibiting uses such as outdoor sales and self-storage.
The board also approved a resolution requested by Julie White with the Multi-Modal Transportation group supporting the development of two rail corridors, one of them being the S-Line or the CSX Railroad line through Wake Forest. The group is working to have North Carolina invest in and eventually own the historic rail line (completed in 1840) for the use of trains handling both freight and people with commuting one of the goals.
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